Jared Harper stood tall with 30 points for the winners
Depleted Jerusalem breezes past Cedevita, 83-94
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem got back to winning ways with a no-doubt-about-it 83-94 road win over Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana on Wednesday night. Jerusalem improved to 4-2 in Group B, the same record as Cedevita, which lost for the first time at home this season.
Depleted and playing without big men Justin Smith and Austin Wiley, the visitors took the lead for good with a 0-8 run to start the second quarter, then pulled away in the third when Jerusalem hit 6 triples and scored 30 points, increasing the lead to more than 20 points and then cruising the rest of the way.
Jared Harper paced the winners with 30 points and 5 assists. Yovel Zoosman scored 18 points, Khadeen Carrington 17 and Chris Johnson amassed 11 points and 11 rebounds. Jaka Blazic had 15 points for Cedevita. Gregor Glas finished with 13 points, Devin Robinson and Devan Jones scored 12 apiece and Joan Beringer netted 10 in a losing effort.
Game Videos
Martinas Geben scored twice for the hosts early on, but Jerusalem replied with a 0-10 run, including a three-point play from Gabriel Chachashvili and a triple from Carrington to make it 6-12. Rok Radovic answered with 5 points, including a three-pointer, to help tied the game, and a transition triple from Blazic put Cedevita up 17-16. Speedy Smith answered right back with a three of his own and the teams were tied at 19-19 after 10 minutes.
The visitors opened the second quarter with a 0-8 run which included a three-point play from Harper and a triple from Zoosman. Geben scored inside, ending a drought of nearly 5 minutes without a basket for Cedevita, but Harper and Zoosman extended the lead to 21-31. Robinson scored 5 points for the hosts, including a three-point play, but Harper and Johnson, the latter with a triple, opened a 28-39 margin. Jones scored on consecutive possessions for the hosts, but Harper and Johnson made sure Cedevita did not cut much into the lead and Jerusalem took a 36-45 cushion into halftime.
Aleksej Nikolic and Zoosman traded triples to start the scoring in the third quarter. Carrington's basket extended the lead to 39-52, and after a triple from Blazic, a three-pointer from Jeremy Morgan made it 42-57. Beringer had a big dunk for the hosts, but Zoosman and Harper each knocked down another triple before Morgan's three-point play and 2 more threes from Carrington made it 49-74.
Jerusalem took a 55-77 advantage into the final 10 minutes. Harper's triple pushed the margin to 25 points again. Cedevita showed life by scoring the next 8 points, including a monster dunk by Devin Robinson, but Morgan's triple halted the surge. A three from Glas made it 68-83 and another triple of his cut it to 77-89 with 3:00 to go. However, it proved to be too little, too late for the hosts.